On Tuesday, the Iraqi Cabinet expressed extreme displeasure over the incursion of Turkish troops into the Kurdish northern region of Iraq and called for a halt to Turkish interference, which Cabinet officials called a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty.” Also on Tuesday, an apparent suicide attack on a bus headed toward Syria from Mosul in northern Iraq killed nine people, according to The New York Times.


The New York Times:

The attack took place about 500 yards from an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the town of Tmerat, 50 miles west of Mosul, where scores of recruits routinely gather at an Iraqi Army base, according to a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The recruits were probably the target and the bomb may have exploded prematurely, he said. Brig. Khalid Abdulsatar confirmed that nine had been killed and eight injured.

United States military pressure coupled with a change of allegiances by Sunni insurgents and a cease-fire by Shiite militias in southern and central Iraq has pushed remaining insurgents north to Mosul, US and Iraqi officials say. The city of two million has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent months and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki recently promised a “decisive battle” with insurgents there after 45 civilians were killed a month ago when a building was blown up in a Mosul neighborhood.

In northern Iraq, fighting continued for a fifth day as Turkish forces attacked P.K.K. rebel bases, while the Iraqi cabinet in Baghdad condemned the incursion and, in a statement, demanded its immediate halt.

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